Wall Street financial whiz Alexandra Lebenthal offers a smart twist on chick lit with her first novel, The Recessionistas. Plus, she reveals the one money rule we should all live by.

In The Recessionistas, a new novel by Wall Street financial whiz Alexandra Lebenthal, the economic crisis hits the Upper East Side — sending four socialites scrambling in their Manolos. As their worlds and their bank accounts take a serious hit, these fierce females power on, stopping at nothing to get what they want. Lebenthal has first-hand experience with these kinds of characters in real life — as the President and CEO of Lebenthal & Co, a financial advisory firm, she entered the world of finance when she was just 23 and was running the company (which was founded by her grandparents in 1925) by age 31. A few years ago, Lebenthal began writing a column on NewYorkSocialDiary.com, where her witty commentary on the people who inhabit the world of Wall Street won an army of fans. One such fan happened to be a literary agent, who convinced Lebenthal to write a novel based on actual events. Three short months later, she delivered her manuscript. Here, she dishes with Cosmo about putting on her fiction-writing hat for the first time, and she doles out some free money advice (thanks, we'll take it!).

Q: Why did you decide to write a novel, and not a non-fiction book about money?

A: Fiction is so much fun, and it can be whatever you want it to be. Life can be perfect, bad people can get theirs. But the path to actually writing the novel came from writing this column on New York Social Diary, and commenting and writing about the financial world but using fictional characters. I got such positive feedback from women who don't work on Wall Street — for the first time in their lives they understood what was going on because of the way I was telling the story.

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Q: The novel covers such a heavy topic, but you make the details of financial crisis much easier to understand. Was that important for you to try to explain the industry in a way that non-finance people could understand it?

A: Yes. There are certain parts in the book where I was very specific in the way I explained things or which character was talking about things because I wanted there to be moments where I took something down to the most basic level so that somebody who's not working on Wall Street would get it.

Q: The topic is heavy, but it is still a light, fun read. Why did you decide to take that approach with it?

A: People want to be entertained. And they'll pay more attention to the heavy stuff when it's mixed in with fiction.

Q: In the past you've said that you think that women have a psychological issue with money. Do you think that's changed since the crash?

A: No, I actually think it's the same. I think that for some reason women just get this mental block when it comes to money. I think that they feel, that after the financial crisis, they have even less control than in the past. Although, I will say that I find more women ask about it than they used to. They are still very timid, but I've found they do care about wanting to learn more and trying to understand more than they did in the past.

Q: How do you think that women today can try to become more comfortable with money and investing?

A: One of the great things about the internet is that it really gives people the ability to learn things without having to expose themselves as a neophyte. So, whether it's a site like iVillage, which has a great basic money and investing section, or the website of a mutual fund company, you can go at your own pace and figure out what you want to learn and then have enough information to talk to somebody further. So I think that's a great place to start.

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Q: What do women need to know when they try to find a financial advisor?

A: They don't have to use whoever their dad used or whoever their husband works with. If they don't like the person there are millions of people. And I do think that a lot of times women really are better off dealing with women because there is just a natural comfort level and it's a natural conversation. Women like to talk, so you want to have a conversation about it, you want to ask questions and say, "What do you think about this/what do you think about that?" I think that sometimes when men are dealing with women, you don't get that kind of dialogue and that comfort level. There are some great male financial advisors, but I just do see a lot that women just feel more comfortable dealing with women.

Q: If you could tell twenty-something women to live by one rule, what would it be?

A: Start saving and investing as early and as regularly as you possibly can. I would recommend that people have both an IRA and 401K at their company. The great thing about a 401K is that most companies match the contribution to a certain point. So if you think about it, its really like you're making more money than you thought you were because your company is giving that money to you. The other great thing about a 401k is that it's not something you have to do consciously. So you make the determination about what percentage of you want to contribute and then it automatically happens. It's not like you have to make a choice, it just happens.

Q: What percentage do you think Cosmo readers should be investing at this stage in their lives?

A: Take a hard look at your budget and determine how much you can really afford to save. Use the calculator at bankrate.com where you can put in, say, "I'm going to save $3,000 a year for the next ten years, and let me just say it's going to earn five percent." And then you can see what that builds up to. As I said before, the earlier you can start, the more time you have to let that money build up over time.

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